We're not in much of a celebratory mood around here right now, given all that's going on. But still, The BRAD BLOG was formed in a post-911, "Global War on Terror", Bush Era crucible of rightwing bad faith and fire. It's worse now than ever. But our institutional memory is both pretty keen and pretty useful. We saw these nightmares coming years ago, did our duty to warn. And yet, here we are.

So, it seems, the fire is still burning, as The BRAD BLOG "celebrates" our 22nd anniversary this week of reader/listner-supported investigative blogging, journalism, broadcasting, muck-racking and trouble-making...

While much of the rest of the media world has figured out they finally need to ask readers for direct support, we learned that lesson long ago and have survived all of these years only on the good faith and support of our readers and listeners. We barely survive each year. But barely was good enough for the Bush Era, it's good enough for the Trump Era. Survival is the key.

In addition to mere survival this year, another point I want to hit as we start a new year. I have mentioned it once or twice, both on the blog and on The BradCast, but we have been quietly working behind the scenes for a whole bunch of months, on our shoe-string budget, on an ambitious, long-overdue, bottom-up, from-scratch upgrade to both the site and the server it runs on.

I'll have more details when we are finally ready to make the transition. It's taking longer than hoped. But I mention it now by way of noting that we could certainly use whatever extra support you may be able to offer this year to help defray the additional expenses related to the upgrade. If all goes as hoped, the site will be more modern, more mobile-friendly, more secure, and (most of all!) much faster and more reliable!

At least that is the hope. So far, so good. But, if you can help us get there, it would really be appreciated.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck with us over these many years, through thick and thin, through political nightmares and celebrations, service outages and "Wordpress Database Errors", as well as to those who have jumped on board at any time over these past insane 22 years.

As we enter our 23rd, please know that none of this is possible without your support. Thank you.

Let's get out of these latest nightmares, shall we? I hear there are some major elections coming up later this year. Our coverage has begun already, in case you haven't noticed. And it won't stop until all the counting is done. And, if the past 22 years of election coverage is prologue: it won't stop after the counting is done either.

We know you have many media outlets to choose from. More than ever, these days. So, thank you for counting on The BRAD BLOG for all or any part of these 22 years. On to 23. Please stay buckled up and keep your wits about you until the nightmares come to a full and complete stop...

-- Brad (et al)

                 

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